This page is about entrepreneurship. If you want to get more information on my business idea, please look at this presentation slideshare.net or visit my blog katsoa.wordpress.com
Entrepreneur personality through the Palgrave test
Section 1: Need for achievement (10 out of 12)
I agree with almost all of the qualities except one sizeable point: self-confidence is rather lacking to me. Other than that, I am clearly a restless and energetic person, particularly when I manage a project. Moreover, when it is about to achieve an aim, I show persistence and determination.
Section 2: Need for autonomy/independence (5 out of 6)
Even if I’m not reluctant to work within a team, which enables to broaden knowledge and ideas, I think I’m more efficient by working alone. As an extrovert person, I need to express what I think. I am definitely stubborn and determined. And I do dislike taking orders but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect the hierarchy. Section 3: Creative tendency (5 out of 12)
Under the average score which doesn’t really surprise me since creativity isn’t the quality that best characterize me. But I would have expected to get a higher score because I am intuitive, versatile and very curious. Even if I feel in danger/threatened in unknown situations, I appreciate novelty and change, and I even need it because it offers me the opportunity to take up challenges; without it, I would get bored. Section 4: Moderate/calculated risk taking (3 out of 12)
Again under average score. Actually what’s true is that I tend to set hardly attainable goals. Besides, I need to have all the information before making a decision. Finally, what certainly penalizes my score is my lack of self-confidence. Section 5: Drive and determination (8 out of 12)
I would have thought to get a higher score. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I may ask me too much questions to take full advantage of opportunities. I’m not self-confident, which also reduces my score. Admittedly, there’s always a part of chance but, to my mind, by showing determination and making efforts, I can achieve what I want/my projects and design my own destiny.
Generally speaking, my classmates agree with these results and think it provides a right description of my personality.
Talent management
On the one hand, the talents that I should develop to become a successful entrepreneur are: * Strong personality
An entrepreneur must be a leader and make people believe in him. Qualities such as charisma, rhetoric and persuasion, are crucial to make people, your team members as well as investors, join your project. * Diplomacy
I have to develop good interpersonal skills for dealing with customers, journalists,… and for giving a good image of my business. It may be useful if I have to act in a world where I’m not welcome. * Adaptability and reactivity
As an entrepreneur, whatever are the problems I have to face, I must be able to immerse myself in the situation and quickly think about a way to get round. * Risk taking, daring
An entrepreneur mustn’t be someone that needs security because there’s always a risk to fail. This key quality is more difficult to have as you become older and have a family. * Patience
The way to success may be very long and hard.
On the other hand, some qualities may be less supportive for me to be a successful entrepreneur: * Profit making oriented
An entrepreneur has to like making money because it’s the main goal of starting a business. But it mustn’t be stronger than your social intelligence because you will never go very far without people to help and support you. And making profit mustn’t be a sufficient reason for accepting clients and persons that aren’t beneficial to the company. * Self-confidence and ambition
These qualities are necessary to go into business and make y dream come true. But self-confidence and ambition can be less supportive when there are obstacles on the way. Indeed, I must be able to accept failure and to take a new look at my business to analyze weaknesses.
Research
A website that might be relevant for any upcoming entrepreneur as for me is: http://www.entrepreneur.com. I’ve selected it because it provides useful information and tools to help start, grow and manage my small business. This site is a comprehensive resource that covers a large area of competences (online business and new technology, finance, sales and marketing, management and human resources). Moreover, through the blog network and the question of the week, I can share with other entrepreneurs and benefit from their experience. Thus I have at my disposal all the knowledge required to concretize my business idea and make it successful.
As an entrepreneur, I am interested in the future of business and consumerism. That’s why I have chosen the following website: http://trendwatching.com. It is completely different from the previous one since it doesn’t provide the skills necessary to run my business but it enables the entrepreneur to keep open-mindedness on what’s going on in the world and to be aware of the emerging changes. Thanks to its worldwide network of analysts and spotters, this independent firm scans the globe for emerging, promising consumer trends and insights. So, I would subscribe to this website in order to receive free, monthly trend briefings that can help me to dream up new goods and services for my customers.
This website may be completed by the website http://springwise.com/ which also provides smart new business ideas and gives inspiration to my entrepreneurial mind.
So, with these two websites, I have access to the fundamental skills and I can keep an eye on future trends, to make my business idea successful and sustainable.
Entrepreneur pictures
First, this picture shows that the entrepreneur is, like you and me, a part of a society but he chooses to go away from it despite the risks because he has a dream, a project to concretize. The red color can even point out that he’s putting himself in danger. Then, he’s in action, which highlights the energy and drive of the single entrepreneur in the early stages of his venture. This picture also emphasizes some key talents of the entrepreneur: forward looking, determined and charismatic. And his charisma makes people believe in him and follow him in his project. To finish, we can also consider the persons behind him as his competitors and so, this picture stresses that the entrepreneur has to run faster than them.
This “home-made” picture reflects my personal point of view about an entrepreneur. Indeed, to my mind, anyone can be an entrepreneur: man or woman, graduated or not, young or older, city-dweller or country-dweller… there’s no typical profile. The social backgrounds, the appearance and the look have no links with the ability to run a business successfully. What only matters is to have an innovative idea (ecological wink with the bulb) and the willingness to concretize it.
Eco-bounty trend
As my business idea consists in creating ecological and fair trade bags, I’ve selected the ECO-BOUNTY trend (you can find more information on http://trendwatching.com). It refers to the several current opportunities for companies that take part in the quest for a more sustainable world, and my business idea is particularly concerned. According to this trend, eco-fatigue isn’t going to happen this year and future profits will even be green. I’ve chosen eco-bounty because it perfectly matches with my business idea. Indeed, the origin of our project is to prove that new ways of working and consuming are possible, without polluting and wasting resources.
More particularly, there are 4 sub-trends of eco-bounty that correspond to my business idea:
1. Eco-chic and now Eco-iconic
As our goal is to offer eco-friendly bags that actually looks as nice and trendy as the less (and even not) sustainable products in most shops, my business idea perfectly matches the Eco-chic trend. Now we’ve moved to Eco-iconic. And it’s not a problem because Katsoa will benefit from this new sub-trend which describes the eagerness of many consumers to flaunt their green behavior and possessions, to impress others with their green lifestyles. 2.Eco-easy
This new eco-trend shows that the eco-bounty is still relevant for 2010 and it’s even strengthening since now corporations and governments are ready to take concrete measures, all the more since most government plan to dominate the post-recession economy by going sustainable. My business idea is coherent with this trend because it’s about making bags more sustainable without clients even noticing it, so that it’s easy for them to be green. Unfortunately, I don’t think that governmental restrictions are today conceivable in this sector. But, it may be fueled by the current recession. And, in the future, it may even exist some aids and advantages to encourage the setting of companies that respect the environment and mankind. For now, we are benefiting from this trend in terms of image. 3.Eco-frugal
It relates to my business idea in a sense that my products are addressed to consumers who are, despite the recession, primarily interested in sustainable consumption and continue to demand responsible behavior from brands. The problem is that they are no longer willing or mostly able to pay the usual premiums. But, although our prices seem to reach high amounts, we sell bags at a price equal to competitors. How is it possible? Since our products are produced with dignity, our fabrication costs are on average 7-8 times higher than other brands. But our policy is to make no advertising and we integrate the saved resources into the production chain. 4.Eco-naked
More and more websites, such as http://www.greenwashingindex.com/, are dedicated to uncovering and exposing green businesses. So, I have selected this last trend because we aim to be a company with transparent practices in order to gain credibility and to deserve our customers’ trust. For instance, we don’t want to conceal the fact that the clasp (zippers and magnets) of our bags are composed of metal whose origin is not controlled, from our clients.
Next practice not best practice
A best practice can be defined as a method, technique or process that has delivered over time superior outcomes than those achieved by any other method, technique, process. So, from what I understood, best practices determine how to accomplish a task in the most efficient and effective way. In other words, it shows how to get the best results with the least amount of effort and unforeseen difficulties. However, no practice is best for everyone, in every situation: it can only be applied to a particular circumstance. Besides, a best practice doesn’t remain best for long because people keep on discovering better ways of doing things. To finish, best practices are used within any business type including sales, manufacturing, business management and sustainable development.
For my business idea, I expect to take up the methods and the partnerships used by existing companies, in the clothing industry, which respect the environment and the fair trade principles. Thus, for instance, I plan to optimize my production and to get 0 overcapacity – 0 out of stock.
Now let’s talk about Next Practices, which are emergent innovations that could open up new ways of working. They are generated by informed practitioners, aware of the strengths and limitations of conventional ‘best' practice, who try to find new and more effective solutions to contemporary problems.
Some next practices that I could apply to my business proposal are: * Be unique: ecological and fair trade bags that look trendy are still very rare. So, buying our products enables the customer to distinguish himself and to draw attention to his green lifestyle. This feeling of uniqueness will be reinforced when we design limited editions. * Break pricing rules: in a sense, it’s true because our bags’ prices are equal to the competition whereas our production costs are much higher. We could have chosen to make more profit by raising our prices on the behalf of ecology and fair trade. * Apply current trends to your product: as I explained before, the current quest for a sustainable society clearly applies to my business idea. * Special locations: to a lesser extent, Katsoa highlights the location of origin of our raw materials (for instance, the Amazon Forest for the natural rubber).
Prasena Compentencies Management to HR tool to build the dream team
To build my dream team, I have selected some competencies in the dictionaries you can find on http://entrepreneur-ggsb.wikispaces.com/Research+Links.
On the one hand, I’ve chosen 5 technical competencies that my business needs in order to conduct its activities at the desired level of expertise: * Supply chain management: knowledge of the methods and systems related to order taking and follow-up until delivery. * Costing: knowledge of the particular costing methods that respect the principles of fair trade. * Finance management: knowledge of all the concepts and tools in order to be profitable and so, sustainable. * International laws: knowledge of several international trade, investment and tax-related laws since we do business with different countries (raw material and assembly). And also knowledge about the practices in terms of labour. * Marketing: knowledge of all the concepts and tools (except advertising) and particularly all the multimedia applications to have an active presence and to promote our bags on the Internet.
On the other hand, since my business is just going to start, I’ve selected 5 behavioral competencies which are necessary for my organization to survive. * Communication skills: ability to inform and to transmit ideas in an engaging, easy-to-understand and memorable way, through various media (especially the web). * Inter-personal relations: ability to interact easily with various persons (suppliers, distributors, customers, journalists…) and to make them join your project * Organizing skills: ability to continuously anticipate and handle multiple activities, and deliver them within given timeframes and resources. It’s especially important for small businesses, where the entrepreneur must be “multiple tasks”. * Safety orientation: ability to act and to stimulate others to act. * Problem solving: ability to analyze problems, to generate alternative solutions and to ensure its implementation. Without this skill, the business would fail.
Entrepreneur personality through the Palgrave test
Section 1: Need for achievement (10 out of 12)
I agree with almost all of the qualities except one sizeable point: self-confidence is rather lacking to me. Other than that, I am clearly a restless and energetic person, particularly when I manage a project. Moreover, when it is about to achieve an aim, I show persistence and determination.
Section 2: Need for autonomy/independence (5 out of 6)
Even if I’m not reluctant to work within a team, which enables to broaden knowledge and ideas, I think I’m more efficient by working alone. As an extrovert person, I need to express what I think. I am definitely stubborn and determined. And I do dislike taking orders but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect the hierarchy.
Section 3: Creative tendency (5 out of 12)
Under the average score which doesn’t really surprise me since creativity isn’t the quality that best characterize me. But I would have expected to get a higher score because I am intuitive, versatile and very curious. Even if I feel in danger/threatened in unknown situations, I appreciate novelty and change, and I even need it because it offers me the opportunity to take up challenges; without it, I would get bored.
Section 4: Moderate/calculated risk taking (3 out of 12)
Again under average score. Actually what’s true is that I tend to set hardly attainable goals. Besides, I need to have all the information before making a decision. Finally, what certainly penalizes my score is my lack of self-confidence.
Section 5: Drive and determination (8 out of 12)
I would have thought to get a higher score. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I may ask me too much questions to take full advantage of opportunities. I’m not self-confident, which also reduces my score. Admittedly, there’s always a part of chance but, to my mind, by showing determination and making efforts, I can achieve what I want/my projects and design my own destiny.
Generally speaking, my classmates agree with these results and think it provides a right description of my personality.
Talent management
On the one hand, the talents that I should develop to become a successful entrepreneur are:* Strong personality
An entrepreneur must be a leader and make people believe in him. Qualities such as charisma, rhetoric and persuasion, are crucial to make people, your team members as well as investors, join your project.
* Diplomacy
I have to develop good interpersonal skills for dealing with customers, journalists,… and for giving a good image of my business. It may be useful if I have to act in a world where I’m not welcome.
* Adaptability and reactivity
As an entrepreneur, whatever are the problems I have to face, I must be able to immerse myself in the situation and quickly think about a way to get round.
* Risk taking, daring
An entrepreneur mustn’t be someone that needs security because there’s always a risk to fail. This key quality is more difficult to have as you become older and have a family.
* Patience
The way to success may be very long and hard.
On the other hand, some qualities may be less supportive for me to be a successful entrepreneur:
* Profit making oriented
An entrepreneur has to like making money because it’s the main goal of starting a business. But it mustn’t be stronger than your social intelligence because you will never go very far without people to help and support you. And making profit mustn’t be a sufficient reason for accepting clients and persons that aren’t beneficial to the company.
* Self-confidence and ambition
These qualities are necessary to go into business and make y dream come true. But self-confidence and ambition can be less supportive when there are obstacles on the way. Indeed, I must be able to accept failure and to take a new look at my business to analyze weaknesses.
Research
A website that might be relevant for any upcoming entrepreneur as for me is: http://www.entrepreneur.com. I’ve selected it because it provides useful information and tools to help start, grow and manage my small business. This site is a comprehensive resource that covers a large area of competences (online business and new technology, finance, sales and marketing, management and human resources). Moreover, through the blog network and the question of the week, I can share with other entrepreneurs and benefit from their experience. Thus I have at my disposal all the knowledge required to concretize my business idea and make it successful.As an entrepreneur, I am interested in the future of business and consumerism. That’s why I have chosen the following website: http://trendwatching.com. It is completely different from the previous one since it doesn’t provide the skills necessary to run my business but it enables the entrepreneur to keep open-mindedness on what’s going on in the world and to be aware of the emerging changes. Thanks to its worldwide network of analysts and spotters, this independent firm scans the globe for emerging, promising consumer trends and insights. So, I would subscribe to this website in order to receive free, monthly trend briefings that can help me to dream up new goods and services for my customers.
This website may be completed by the website http://springwise.com/ which also provides smart new business ideas and gives inspiration to my entrepreneurial mind.
So, with these two websites, I have access to the fundamental skills and I can keep an eye on future trends, to make my business idea successful and sustainable.
Entrepreneur pictures
First, this picture shows that the entrepreneur is, like you and me, a part of a society but he chooses to go away from it despite the risks because he has a dream, a project to concretize. The red color can even point out that he’s putting himself in danger. Then, he’s in action, which highlights the energy and drive of the single entrepreneur in the early stages of his venture. This picture also emphasizes some key talents of the entrepreneur: forward looking, determined and charismatic. And his charisma makes people believe in him and follow him in his project. To finish, we can also consider the persons behind him as his competitors and so, this picture stresses that the entrepreneur has to run faster than them.
This “home-made” picture reflects my personal point of view about an entrepreneur. Indeed, to my mind, anyone can be an entrepreneur: man or woman, graduated or not, young or older, city-dweller or country-dweller… there’s no typical profile. The social backgrounds, the appearance and the look have no links with the ability to run a business successfully. What only matters is to have an innovative idea (ecological wink with the bulb) and the willingness to concretize it.
Eco-bounty trend
As my business idea consists in creating ecological and fair trade bags, I’ve selected the ECO-BOUNTY trend (you can find more information on http://trendwatching.com). It refers to the several current opportunities for companies that take part in the quest for a more sustainable world, and my business idea is particularly concerned. According to this trend, eco-fatigue isn’t going to happen this year and future profits will even be green. I’ve chosen eco-bounty because it perfectly matches with my business idea. Indeed, the origin of our project is to prove that new ways of working and consuming are possible, without polluting and wasting resources.More particularly, there are 4 sub-trends of eco-bounty that correspond to my business idea:
1. Eco-chic and now Eco-iconic
As our goal is to offer eco-friendly bags that actually looks as nice and trendy as the less (and even not) sustainable products in most shops, my business idea perfectly matches the Eco-chic trend. Now we’ve moved to Eco-iconic. And it’s not a problem because Katsoa will benefit from this new sub-trend which describes the eagerness of many consumers to flaunt their green behavior and possessions, to impress others with their green lifestyles.
2. Eco-easy
This new eco-trend shows that the eco-bounty is still relevant for 2010 and it’s even strengthening since now corporations and governments are ready to take concrete measures, all the more since most government plan to dominate the post-recession economy by going sustainable. My business idea is coherent with this trend because it’s about making bags more sustainable without clients even noticing it, so that it’s easy for them to be green. Unfortunately, I don’t think that governmental restrictions are today conceivable in this sector. But, it may be fueled by the current recession. And, in the future, it may even exist some aids and advantages to encourage the setting of companies that respect the environment and mankind. For now, we are benefiting from this trend in terms of image.
3. Eco-frugal
It relates to my business idea in a sense that my products are addressed to consumers who are, despite the recession, primarily interested in sustainable consumption and continue to demand responsible behavior from brands. The problem is that they are no longer willing or mostly able to pay the usual premiums. But, although our prices seem to reach high amounts, we sell bags at a price equal to competitors. How is it possible? Since our products are produced with dignity, our fabrication costs are on average 7-8 times higher than other brands. But our policy is to make no advertising and we integrate the saved resources into the production chain.
4. Eco-naked
More and more websites, such as http://www.greenwashingindex.com/, are dedicated to uncovering and exposing green businesses. So, I have selected this last trend because we aim to be a company with transparent practices in order to gain credibility and to deserve our customers’ trust. For instance, we don’t want to conceal the fact that the clasp (zippers and magnets) of our bags are composed of metal whose origin is not controlled, from our clients.
Next practice not best practice
A best practice can be defined as a method, technique or process that has delivered over time superior outcomes than those achieved by any other method, technique, process. So, from what I understood, best practices determine how to accomplish a task in the most efficient and effective way. In other words, it shows how to get the best results with the least amount of effort and unforeseen difficulties. However, no practice is best for everyone, in every situation: it can only be applied to a particular circumstance. Besides, a best practice doesn’t remain best for long because people keep on discovering better ways of doing things. To finish, best practices are used within any business type including sales, manufacturing, business management and sustainable development.For my business idea, I expect to take up the methods and the partnerships used by existing companies, in the clothing industry, which respect the environment and the fair trade principles. Thus, for instance, I plan to optimize my production and to get 0 overcapacity – 0 out of stock.
Now let’s talk about Next Practices, which are emergent innovations that could open up new ways of working. They are generated by informed practitioners, aware of the strengths and limitations of conventional ‘best' practice, who try to find new and more effective solutions to contemporary problems.
Some next practices that I could apply to my business proposal are:
* Be unique: ecological and fair trade bags that look trendy are still very rare. So, buying our products enables the customer to distinguish himself and to draw attention to his green lifestyle. This feeling of uniqueness will be reinforced when we design limited editions.
* Break pricing rules: in a sense, it’s true because our bags’ prices are equal to the competition whereas our production costs are much higher. We could have chosen to make more profit by raising our prices on the behalf of ecology and fair trade.
* Apply current trends to your product: as I explained before, the current quest for a sustainable society clearly applies to my business idea.
* Special locations: to a lesser extent, Katsoa highlights the location of origin of our raw materials (for instance, the Amazon Forest for the natural rubber).
Prasena Compentencies Management to HR tool to build the dream team
To build my dream team, I have selected some competencies in the dictionaries you can find on http://entrepreneur-ggsb.wikispaces.com/Research+Links.On the one hand, I’ve chosen 5 technical competencies that my business needs in order to conduct its activities at the desired level of expertise:
* Supply chain management: knowledge of the methods and systems related to order taking and follow-up until delivery.
* Costing: knowledge of the particular costing methods that respect the principles of fair trade.
* Finance management: knowledge of all the concepts and tools in order to be profitable and so, sustainable.
* International laws: knowledge of several international trade, investment and tax-related laws since we do business with different countries (raw material and assembly). And also knowledge about the practices in terms of labour.
* Marketing: knowledge of all the concepts and tools (except advertising) and particularly all the multimedia applications to have an active presence and to promote our bags on the Internet.
On the other hand, since my business is just going to start, I’ve selected 5 behavioral competencies which are necessary for my organization to survive.
* Communication skills: ability to inform and to transmit ideas in an engaging, easy-to-understand and memorable way, through various media (especially the web).
* Inter-personal relations: ability to interact easily with various persons (suppliers, distributors, customers, journalists…) and to make them join your project
* Organizing skills: ability to continuously anticipate and handle multiple activities, and deliver them within given timeframes and resources. It’s especially important for small businesses, where the entrepreneur must be “multiple tasks”.
* Safety orientation: ability to act and to stimulate others to act.
* Problem solving: ability to analyze problems, to generate alternative solutions and to ensure its implementation. Without this skill, the business would fail.